Page 78 of A Master's Destiny
I glance in the passenger window and see the violin case. I’m overwhelmed by the feelings that rush through me the moment I see it. It is the only material possession on Earth that has any value to me.
“Get in now, before I change my mind,” she states, sliding into the passenger seat as she picks up the violin.
I glance at the entrance of the school.
If I don’t go with her, I’m certain my mother will destroy the only thing that matters to me. The only thing left of my father.
Looking back at the violin clutched in her arms, I already know my answer.
With my stomach in knots, I slip into the back seat, and the car lurches forward. The man driving the vehicle is someone I have never seen before. I make a quick inventory of his face, noting his neck tattoos. But the man never looks in my direction or speaks, keeping his eyes on the road during the entire drive.
My mother turns in the front seat to look back at me. She smiles with those cruel red lips as she pats the violin case in her arms.
I turn my head to stare out the window. I realize now that Nosaka’s warning was about my mother.
She is the boa constrictor in my dream, determined to suck the life out of me, but I’ve realized it too late.
I should have run…
The driver pulls up to the house.
I wasn’t prepared to see it again and my anxiety boils over.
My mother clutches the violin case tightly to her chest as she gets out of the car. Turning to face me, she slowly opens the case.
I suck in a sharp breath when I see my father’s beloved violin nestled inside. It is an heirloom that has been passed down for generations, and it is the one thing that still carries his soul.
I slowly get out of the car, drawn to the instrument like a moth to a flame.
The man in the car drives off while I watch my mother open the door to our house and walk inside without glancing back.
I look up at the house I grew up in as I stand on the porch, fighting back a flood of memories.
“Come on, Thane. Don’t leave your mother waiting,” she calls out.
“You’re not my mother,” I growl as I reluctantly walk through the doorway.
I experience a chilling sense of déjà vu as I step into the old house, and I stop for a moment once I’m inside.
It is decorated in the same pristine white I remember from childhood, but my mother has filled the house with expensive things, along with giant paintings of herself that hang on the walls.
She heads to Papa’s office and disappears inside.
Ice runs through my veins when I glance up the flight of stairs that leads to their bedroom. That is the place I first caught my mother cheating on my father—the same place he died two years later.
I don’t want to be here.
My mother peeks her head out of the office and snaps, “Come on, Thane.”
Too invested in the violin to stop now, I lower my head and walk quickly into the office.
The violin case sits on a white marble desk.
When I head for it, I hear the door slam behind me. My hackles rise when I notice one of my mother’s pretty boys standing guard at the door.
“What is he doing here?” I demand.
Seeing her with another man in this house instantly throws me back in time.
